noitom

Stay tuned for the "Thai Elite Medical Hub Card." This new and improve card will have 10 promises of stability and quality of service and 4 denials that it will be a form of Ponzi Scheme. The THMHC will put its owner in an elite tier of visitors who get more special treatment than those already getting special treatment. The Thais gave 5 assurances of this.

Preposterous!

This is a preposterous proclamation! It makes Thailand a buffoon looking country. Everyone knows that Thailand is second only to China in the theft of intellectual property and making and selling fake goods. The black Thai economy exists on the back of the girls and fake goods.

Often the ideal or religion that was the foundation of the opposing philosophy gets abducted by other groups with differing self interested agendas and it perpetuates into radical violence. At that stage all the original well meaning ideology is squandered and lost and not recognized by the existing authority or recognizes it as "terrorist" and ignores the root ideal of the majority.

There is a fine line between freedom fighting and terrorism. The marvel of a Ghandi as a leader is even more pronounced when you compare his achievement and methodology to today's tactics.

The point of the editorial was cloudy. Are they saying that programs that embrace the poor and disenfranchised in Thailand are wrong? What does the newspaper believe should be the priorities in connecting with the majority millions of Thais living day to day outside Bangkok? How would the newspaper propose to "reengineer" their economy, health care, education, and lifestyle so as to give them hope? The newspaper should be a voice of intellectual perspective and constructive recommendation that meets the test of reality. Ignoring the needs of these millions of Thai country folks or berating politicians that at least "recognize" them only engenders further conflict in Thai society. More often than not it appears that the newspaper's agenda is in fact to constantly stir things up and appeal to base Thai emotions rather than expressing an informed voice of practical leadership for the good of all Thais.

Close associations, statute of limitations, a US citizen, hiding in London, on the go to Hong Kong and the US, all the intrigue of a Tom Clancy.

What happened to the bullets removed from the corpses and wounded? The fact that they went to the toilet and smoked was very noteworthy.

The Dr. is right. The arguments used don't make too much sense, but the point about investing in rural hospitals first, before promoting foreign travel for medical services, makes a lot of sense.

He's assuring, he's testing. At least he's testing, something very new.

He knows that Thai girls are sitting on a gold mine. He's merely telling them to dig harder.

I know that my goverment give very hard time to forigner that marry an Israeli. my country just doesnt like forigners speciali asian and africans. as long as we have this laws i prefer to marry my thai gf and live in Thailand - but the visa thing will be a killer.

Get legally married at an amphur and get a marriage visa. It's easy. You don't need to pay a lawyer either. You can do it yourselves.

They stiffed earlier cardholders. Now they plan to start the double cross again.

A slice off a cut loaf is never missed.

This news item could well serve as the first sound bite/entry in The Nation's database of "claims and crimes." A new revolutionary technology designed to track announcements in news articles. The database could be used extensively by police to solve crimes, families of victims to know the status of their friends and loved ones, competing politicians seeking to document false claims and opposition bluster, and for still other politicians, academic..etc. to seize opportunity for a claim or business venture not already referenced in the database.

A quick google search on Dr. Tul reveals lots of information on this politician and lecturer. This one is an interesting point of view by whoever posted it. http://agentofthefree.blogspot.com/2011/06/genetics-according-to-dr-tul.html

She has faith in him, but said don't publish his news.

When a land squatting Thai farm family needs cash, the brother or sister who needs it the most starts dragging everyone in the family down to the Amphur (who the one needing the cash already knows). The Amphur sends a surveyor, a cartographer, and a geologist to assure that the land in question meets all the prerequisites and doesn't encroach on any Thai big cheese and then they send a marker to mark it off. Then they all march down to the Amphur to sign off and get a slice of the chanote. Then the initiating brother or sister needing the cash walks the chanotes in to the local credit union equivalent and gets a cash loan for five years backended with all the accrued interest.

Around year three the credit union sells off the paper to a network of "moneyhandlers" once they have assessed the loan as not collectible and the land not useful. The mystical chanote changes hands a few times for some skim and ends up in the fat fingers of a local big man who farms it out to two collectors. The collectors show up in the village one day around the beginning of year six and cause a lot of embarrassment if the loan is not paid off immediately.

The cycle then repeats itself with a slick brother, sister, cousin, son, daughter or neighbor who figures out how to con another family in to the same move or becoming a "partner" and sharing in the payback of when they'll sell the land for real money and everyone will party for three days and nights.

This is called Ponzai Somchai Chanote, the Thai version of the mortgage backed securities crisis in the US and the UK. Named in part for the first Thai and Japanese to shake hands and make a deal after the Japanese invasion at Prachuap Khiri Khan in WW II on December 8, 1941. This Thai instrument would be analogous to an Australian Chattel Mortgage, typically used to fund the purchase of cars, pickup trucks, and other miscellaneous "business equipment" that is "portable" like Thai land.

"At that meeting, military leaders made it clear to the government that they would not tolerate any political attempts to weaken the armed forces as an institution."

They've had enough. They are making it clear. They won't tolerate. Wow! It's a real military dictatorship masquerading as a democracy in the making.

When you think about the situation in the context of this article, it's easy to see that Thailand's case is dire. They will end up going after the noodle guy because he can't hide or bribe. The last sentence states that three state enterprises will have a plan as to where they can sell more products. The key is that the tax shortfall and how the Thais are thrashing about. The second point is that Thais don't know how to sell anything except sex. They are the masters of the universe at selling sex and owning that global business. Where and what can they sell? More sex, that's easy. But you never see the truth about this.

Whatever happened to all the speculation that it was the Thahan Phran? Brought in by who knows who? Whatever happened to all the speculation about the general sadang daeng? He was all the rage for quite a while.

Wow! What an amazing article. First off, the above headline had nothing to do with Thaksin and was zeroed in on the TPP, an extremely complex piece of global mumbo jumbo and well beyond the scope of The Nation to explain in passing. Only the sub-headline of the actual article and the inflammatory headline traditionally used by The Nation made a reference to Thaksin.

Secondly, the use of "envoy" in the case of Ambassador Kenney is incorrect, according to diplomatic protocol as I understand. An "envoy" would be her "second in command" or a designated substitute. Third, the overall grammar of the article is an illustration of lack of editorial proofreading following on extremely poor writing.

On the more complex issue of the TPP. The TPP - Trans-Pacific Partnership is an "extension" of the original Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership of which Thailand was not and is not a member to my knowledge. This fact was not clarified in the article, despite the fact that the article would give rise to the notion that Thailand is active in TPSEP and "pondering" the decision to join in on TPP.

It is currently understood that the Obama administration is attempting to draft and table "instant legislation" drafted by the WH that authorizes that the US join the TPP, and presumably backfill into the TPSEP of which it is classed as a "negotiating" member - whatever that means. Probably "negotiating" means lots of cocktail parties and good old boy deal making at US taxpayer expense. Thailand is not understood to be a negotiating member of either organization, and therefore would need to be qualified as a "negotiating participant" prior to addressing the question of "joining" as presented by the article.

The reference in the article to Thaksin's visa raises up the whole issue of whether Thailand's law, or lack of it as the case may be, considers Thaksin to be a fugitive from law and recognizes his court conviction and sentence. The Nation has failed to actually clarify this issue and set the record straight objectively. Is in fact his conviction considered to be the equivalent of a felony, a misdemeanor, some other Thai classification of criminal offense or was it a lesser "civil" offense?

One can only assume that he, Thaksin, needed to fill out a US visa application and Homeland Security bio. It appears from the article implication that the US either waived or ignored the conviction and sentence questions if in fact they are actual criminal classifications or that Thaksin lied on his application.

Lastly, the reference to Thailand's "creative economy" in the same context as other IP is preposterous and renders The Nation incompetent for classifying the two in the same context. I suspect that Ambassador Kenney's quote on this, as transcribed by The Nation's reporter who was not proofread, was taken out of context. It is not understandable nor would the Ambassador, a knowledgeable professional on Thailand, make such a remark.

Looks like a PR release from Pernod-Ricaud with a touchup. The Nation couldn't make this more newsworthy?

Regardless of its status as satire, it is clearly out of place in a news section. It is in fact discriminatory against gays as well as it points out that being in proximity with them is 'punishment." The gay community should rise up and file discrimination law suits against Th Nation.